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Illusion
This article is about the unit ability called "Illusion". For the kind of damage generated by such a unit, see Illusion Damage. Illusion (or "Illusion Attack") is one of the many Unit Abilities available in Master of Magic. A unit with Illusion delivers Illusion Damage with each of its Melee Attacks and Ranged Attacks (if any). When a target is struck by Illusion Damage, it cannot make any Defense Rolls to reduce that unless it possesses Illusions Immunity. Therefore, the attack's total output depends only on the attacker's Attack Rolls. This makes Illusionary Attacks equally potent against any armor. Exactly 3 units in the game possess Illusion by default. 2 are Fantastic Creatures from the Realm, and one is a Champion. The only way to add Illusion to a unit that does not already have it is to enchant a Magical Item with the Item Power, and giving that item to a Hero. As a consequence, Normal Units and Fantastic Units that do not have Illusion by default cannot acquire it in any way. Description For the most part, any damage that is inflicted during combat is a result of some physical or magical force impacting with the target, sucking its life out, or otherwise causing direct injury. However, what if the target only thinks that it is being injured? In the world of Master of Magic, a particularly good Illusion can not only convince the target that it has been damaged, but actually result in the target being damaged! Since it does not involve any physical force, an Illusionary Attack cannot be obstructed by armor or cover - it is an attack against the target's own mind. Unfortunately, this also means that a "mindless" target would be completely immune to it. Effect Whenever a unit possessing the Illusion ability makes a Melee Attack or Ranged Attack against another unit, the attack delivers Illusion Damage (in addition to any other Damage Types it has). The result is very simple: the target does not get to make any Defense Rolls to try and block this incoming . It completely bypasses the target's armor. Thus, the resulting from an Illusionary Attack depends entirely on the Attack Roll. In fact, if the attacker has (which many Heroes can reach), the attack will cause its maximum amount of damage to the target each and every time. :For example, imagine an attack made by Aerie the Illusionist against a unit of . Aerie makes her attack rolls, registering 3 hits against the target. have a very impressive Defense score of , but Illusion Damage means that they do not get to use it at all! Therefore, Aerie's 3 hits are translated into exactly . Since this type of damage completely ignores armor, units with Illusion are particularly powerful against heavily-armored units, such as Heroes and high-tier Fantastic Units, which non-Illusion attackers may struggle to hurt at all. Only damage from the Illusionary Attack itself ignores the target's armor however. If the attacker delivers several attacks simultaneously, and only one carries the Illusion effect, the target's score is only ignored for that specific attack. Illusions Immunity The only exception to the above rules occurs when the target possesses Illusions Immunity. This is a fairly common immunity, especially among Fantastic Units from the Realm. When an Illusionary Attack is made against such a target, it does not nullify the target's score. The target may make its Defense Rolls as normal, as though the attacker did not possess the Illusion Damage property at all. It may be worth noting that Magic Immunity does not include this effect. In fact, in all current game versions, Illusion overrides every other immunity, allowing a unit possessing it to ignore them completely. City Walls It should also be noted that Illusionary Attacks do not bypass the protection offered by City Walls, even though they can negate any other source of extra along with the target's natural armor (see here for the complete order of resolving ). Thus, attacking through a wall still allows the defending unit to make a Defense Roll with either , or , depending on whether the wall section they are behind is still intact or not. Affected Attack Types The Illusion ability adds the Illusion Damage property to the unit's Melee Attack as well as to any type of Ranged Attack it might possess. Illusion is often considered a great boon for Ranged Attackers, as it allows them to do much more damage (on average) from a safe distance. Nonetheless, a melee unit with high Attack Strength, First Strike, or a decent chance , may also become quite deadly if it possesses this ability. Technically, short-range attacks, such as and , and the hidden Physical component of Gaze Attacks could also benefit from this ability. However, in the official game, none of the units possessing Illusion have any of these. On the other hand, because Axes can be enchanted with the Item Power, it is actually possible to imbue with Illusion, but only for Heroes that have this Attack Type by default. Magical Items really only grant a partial Illusion ability. That is, the weapons enchanted with this power only confer the property to the attacks associated with their specific weapon type. Swords and Maces add it to only; Axes affect and ; Bows enhance only ; while for Staves and Wands, the ability works exclusively with . Units with Default Illusion Only 3 units in the game have Illusion by default. 2 of these are Fantastic Creatures from the Realm, both of which can only be summoned in combat; while the third is a spellcaster Champion. Phantom Beast Phantom Warriors Aerie the Illusionist Note that of these, Aerie is the only unit that has an Illusion Damage Ranged Attack by default. Acquiring Illusion Normal Units and Fantastic Units that do not already possess the Illusion ability cannot obtain it by any means. Heroes, on the other hand, may acquire Illusion by equipping a Magical Item imbued with the Item Power. This will grant them a partial Illusion ability, that applies to some, or all of their attacks, as described above. Note that the ability itself is not displayed in the Unit Statistics Window when viewing the Hero, but is added to the relevant attacks nonetheless. In the case of weapons, it naturally also affects Counter Attacks. The enchantment is limited to magical weapons. Thus, it can only be added to Swords, Maces, Axes, Wands, Staves and Bows. During Item Crafting, this power is only available to Wizards who possess at least Spellbooks. Of course, it is always possible to be offered a weapon for purchase by a wandering Merchant, provided that the player has enough in their treasury. Naturally, the Illusion ability acquired through a weapon is transient: should the Hero unequip the item, they will immediately lose the Illusion ability. Category:Abilities